A Christmas Message

“I see him, but not in the present time. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel….” Numbers 24:17

A scepter is an emblem or sign for authority and when the word scepter was magnified from the other words in this scripture verse, I was reminded of the story Esther in the bible.

Examine these verses with me from Esther:

“The whole world knows that anyone who appears before the king in his inner court without being invited is doomed to die unless the king holds out his golden scepter….” Esther 4:11

“When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her, holding out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched its tip.” Esther 5:2

“Now once more Esther came before the king, falling down at his feet and begging him with tears to stop Haman’s evil plot against the Jews. Again the king held out his golden scepter to Esther. So she rose and stood before him and said, ‘If Your Majesty is pleased with me and if he thinks it is right, send out a decree reversing Haman’s orders to destroy the Jews through out the provinces of the king. For how can I endure to see my people and my family slaughtered and destroyed’” Esther 8:3-6

Anyone who appeared before King Xerxes uninvited was doomed to die unless the king held out his golden scepter, which is a great illustration of what it was like with God’s presence in the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34) and the Most Holy Place in the temple (Hebrews 9:7-8). Only priests could enter these places. The “scepter” and “inner court” of the king are great illustrations or parallels of Jesus holding out his life and sacrifice as a scepter so we can have favor with and approach God.

“Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.” Ephesians 2:18

Jesus told him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.”

Jesus is the authority to receive life and receive eternal life in heaven.

The star represents the star that rose above Bethlehem. The scepter is Jesus that “emerged” from Israel. The scepter held out to us was Jesus who offers us life instead of death.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it but to save it.” John 3:16-17

We as common folk cannot get to heaven by own our deeds or accomplishments but only in relying, submitting, trusting, believing and living “in” Christ - a priesthood in God where we can enter into his inner courts. (Very powerful stuff)

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

For Jesus, transforms all who come, believe and trust him. Where the ordinary are empowered by God’s love, power, mercy, grace, peace, hope and truth, which grow and live in us as we heed the Holy Spirit.

BUT those who do not want to receive this emblem of the Father’s authority will receive a life of decay, death and eternity in hell.

For just Esther had to make a choice to come to King, her husband, to save her and her people from the plot of Haman- we all have to make a choice to come to the King, Savor and Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

Like Haman, Satan the accuser wants to destroy you and make your eternal destination hell by encouraging your ignorance of God’s gracious gift. He doesn’t want you to trust, believe, submit to Jesus- for you to be counted innocent of all your sins and find out what true peace, mercy, grace, hope, joy and truth is.

Satan, the same as Haman, hates when Christians don’t bow down to his tricks and strategies of fear, intimidation, love for wealth, money, popularity, lust, power etc and like Haman he will see it is not enough to lay hands on you and seek in all his ways to destroy you but he cannot destroy your soul or faith unless you let him.

Does God allow Satan to have permission to tempt and test his people?

Did Jesus get tempted and tested and didn’t Jesus say when it comes to Satan, the student is no different then the Master? We are not to fret when tempted and tested for when these things come they not only keep us living in the truth. For in our submission to the truth we have the opportunity and gift to see God work in our life. We have the opportunity to see God’s power to work in and through us as simple vessels of his love as we trust and know in the scepter that has been freely given to us daily.

Satan’s plot will backfire just as Haman’s plot did against the Jews.

The bride of Christ, the Christian church, does not just have God’s favor and affection but has been given the king’s signet ring as his representative to speak and share in the Lord’s name. He has given his bride authority “in” his name.

To share the Good News and celebration of the gift of salvation in the birth of the God’s royal scepter, His Son.

We celebrate this gift in the same fashion as the Jews celebrated victory over their enemies and Haman in Esther’s day to today- with rejoicing and giving of gifts to one another. Jesus is the true gift of the season.

These spiritual truths and how they relate to the story of Esther are not new but let them became fresh and new with the prophecy the wise men knew about as they came to Jerusalem asking “Where is the newborn king of the Jews?”

“A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.” This fact and truth of favor should encourage us.

It should tighten the pieces of this empowering message together even more. It should make your net have smaller and smaller openings where the pieces of God’s truth don’t fall through the holes but the pieces of these tasty messages and truths are gathered and shared and eaten by those who are hungry.

Merry Christmas in all its fullness to you and yours.

Jeff

Celebrating the Merciful Scepter of Christmas

I have heard that there are “Christian” churches that have cancelled church on Christmas morning. I am dumb founded. I am in disbelief. This is actually happening on Christmas day? IT is CHRISTMAS. IT is the day in which we celebrate JESUS’ birthday.

How can we celebrate Christmas without celebrating the reason for Christmas? What is the reasoning? You would be going to church on Sunday anyway and what would be even better Sunday is the day in which we Jesus' birth- the entire reason for Christmas. It is his birthday and you are going to celebrate Jesus' birthday without even taking time to worship and praise him in God’s house? It doesn’t make sense.

Christmas is a day to celebrate the true gift of Christmas. It is a day to honor Jesus who came on our behalf to be God’s merciful scepter to give us life and eternal life. Jesus is King, Lord, and Savior. Favor with God came from Him. He is the one who gave us new life and encourages us and gives us strength in his mercy, grace, peace, hope and love.

Celebrate and honor his birth together as his body this Sunday at the church.

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

“I see him, but not in the present time. I perceive him, but far in the distant future. A star will rise from Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel. It will crush the foreheads of Moab’s people, cracking the skull of the people of Sheth. Edom will be taken over and Seir, it’s enemy will be conquered, while Israel continues on in triumph.” Numbers 24:17

“But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, are only a small village in Judah. Yet a ruler of Israel will come from you, one whose origins are from the distant past. The people of Israel will be abandoned to their enemies until the time when the woman in labor gives birth to her son. Then at last his fellow countrymen will return from exile to their own land. And he will stand to lead his flock with the LORD’s strength, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. Then his people will live there undisturbed, for he will be highly honored all around the world. And he will be the source of our peace.” Micah 5:2-5

Merry Christmas in all it’s fullness to you and yours.

Don’t Make it Complicated. “God Loves You.”

No I haven’t become lax or negligent on the Good News of Jesus Christ but there is a time to share the Good News in more detail and depth as the Spirit gives and there are other times when we need to feed the people of God’s affection in actions of love and in the simple but powerful truth that God loves them.

We at times would all love to beat people over the head that they need Jesus but in what motive are we doing that in? We want to set people free but the Spirit must guide our actions as well as our words. If not done in love it is worthless. Zeal is great but is the zeal in the humility of God’s love or something else?

I remember my grandmother saying to us grand-kids when we were teenagers, “God loves you.” Our response not really understanding this truth would say, “I know Gram.”

Sometimes loving actions and the simple truth make a bigger impact then trying to stuff the Spiritual steak and potatoes of the message of the Good News through people’s ears. I think we also make “God loves You” into the mentality of a bummer sticker on some old grandma’s car but it is NOT. Think about it. “God loves you” is probably the most powerful statement in thought. And if said in the sincere humble love that has been nurtured and matured and delivered by the Holy Spirit, it is the finest aged wine ever tasted.

I know from personal experience that I often put up walls when I felt preached to and people who already feel like outcasts- feel like greater outcasts because the message isn’t delivered in a real genuine loving manner or their heart has not been prepared to receive the message. Instead of hands helping to them out of the ditch of their robbers throw them in, they are given a swinging banter of religious verbiages instead which are not help at all- good intentioned or not.

Live in God’s love and when God wants you to speak he will guide the your words and the length and depth of the words you will speak.

How did you come to Christ? Think about it. Did God make you feel like you had to jump through hoops to be loved by him or did he make himself approachable to you? Why? How? How did the God make himself approachable to his chosen creation? What made it so you could freely come to him and give your life to him?

Remember Colossians 1:19-

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in the Christ, and by him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions, yet now he has brought you back as his friends. He has done this through his death on the cross in his own body. He has brought you into the very presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue to stand in it firmly. Don’t drift away from the assurance you received when you heard the Good News…”

God made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of his blood on the cross. Man will never have peace apart from God. Man will fight and wage war against man and cause other men to go to war for them and against them because they don’t have God’s peace in them, which is only born and matured in and from God’s love.

Just because God reconciled everything to himself does not mean men reconciled themselves to him. Humanity will always separate themselves from God by their thoughts and actions… innocent or not… ignorant or not.

God’s heart is for his creation- he is available to the lowest of the low. He made it possible with his love and the evidence of that love was signified in the blood on the cross so it could be seeded and grown in the hearts of men. He healed you and birthed you of his Holy Spirit who now empowers and calls you to live according to his love.

When people’s hearts are stubborn and hardened and far from God -throwing seed on the ground does nothing if loving actions don’t come with or before it. The Holy Spirit guided actions and words that come forth out of the vessel of man are like the warmth of the sun thawing the frozen ground. People may know God by the little measure that he has planted inside them but that little measure of a seed will only grow when they allow God’s love to grow in them. (Know not just “of” God but “know” him and know him more intimately.)

I did not know Christ even though I had a religious tradition of celebrating his birth every Christmas. I would pray to God and still knowing how far I was from him he answered but I did as the bible said, I did not even thank him and continued on my path of ignorance and stupidity.

The Father drew me in by his love and faithfulness and when his cleansing light came into my life with my choice of surrender and submission to him I became a changed man and the realization of my debt to Jesus Christ became very real.

That is way Jesus says, “For people can’t come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me, and at the last day I will raise them from the dead. As it is written in the Scriptures, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me.” John 6:44-46

The Father gives the Son (Jesus Christ). The Son becomes the Shepherd and the Shepherd gives the Holy Spirit who gives all who trust and believe in the Son (Jesus Christ) have eternal life.

Human effort accomplishes nothing. I have found only by submission, a humility that allows God’s peace to find a seat in our soul, and the growing understanding of God’s love in the depths of our heart- does many powerful things despite the hardness of circumstances, situations, actions and words in this life.

May you as well as I know God’s love greater in our hearts and live in his love so we may have peace, and the power to act graciously and mercifully. May we live and endure spiritually and mindfully in Christ while we are here on this earth. May we let go of ourselves and or own ways of thinking and doing in order for God to able and secure us in his ways of doing things. May we become less and he more. Let us not become arrogant, or blind, or complacent. Let us not become doers by our own means and understanding where the rules of men emerge and God’s love becomes absent in our ways. Let us honor God with our lips and our heart. Let us worship God in Spirit and Truth. –In Jesus Name Amen.

Remember God welcomes the lost. Don’t make it complicated. You and those around you are better off if you remember the simple but powerful message that “God is Love.” Those who trust and believe in this simple message will be productive in the Spirit of the Lord.

Scriptures: Colossians 1:19-23, Romans 1: 19-22, 2 Peter 1:5-9, John 6:44-46, 1 John 4:7

The Message in the Fog

The few mornings ago I was feeling overwhelmed with life as I was driving home when suddenly I drove into this white dense fog. The white fog reminded me of a heavy white snow that blankets everything and gives you that snuggled in feeling. I suddenly imagined the fog in the timbered mountain hills where a modest cabin stands. There, through two of the cabin’s simple grid windows a warm glow was coming from the stone surround fireplace inside. I imagined a warm meal scenting the air and a worn wood rocking chair sitting leg length away from the fire and my journal resting on it waiting for me to scribble down what the Lord would speak to me about.

I drove up my real drive way and came inside and sat and looked outside with appreciation. All the surrounding hills and trees and neighbors were either blanked out or muted of their hardness. The fog quieted my soul. The condensation, the fog had created, dropped off the roof making the metronome inside of me slow to its rhythm. I thanked God for the fog. It was just what I needed to remind me that God is the one who mutes the hardness of life. He quiets my soul, mind and heart.

My "Refuge" had created a temporary refuge for me that morning.

God can take the natural to speak to us in the spiritual.

Listen, Obey, Trust

Recently I had a vision…. And I have got to say sometimes I am just slow at times with what God is showing me.

In the vision I am in a place where it is quiet and still. I am humbled, surrendered and submitted on the floor on my arms and knees - when a person appears before me. This person is wearing a shimmering yellow robe -and with every step a fog like haze perforates from the bottom of this rob. The haze is so thick that I cannot see the person’s feet. The robe mimics one of those essence lanterns you see Catholics holding during their different ceremonies, - that puts out smoke when they wave it back and forth. (I am not a Catholic so I don’t know what the lantern is called but I believe it is supposed to man made way to represent the Holy Spirit.) I look up at the person wearing the rob and it’s a man. He has long white shoulder length hair that is brushed out of his face and a perfectly trimmed white goatee and mustache. He looked as if he was waiting to speak. I call him Father. He looks into my eyes. His eyes are deeper then the depths of space. The man’s face then turns to a sphere of fire and shoots into the sky. A voice says, “He illuminates all the pages.” Then as quickly as the vision began- it ended.

The days following the Holy Spirit led me to the books John, Luke, and Matthew in the bible.

John 12:43 “For they loved human praise more then the praise of God.”

John 5:44 “No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from God alone.”

Next verses

Luke 8:15 “But the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s message, cling to it, and steadily produce a huge harvest.”

Luke 8:18 “So be sure to pay attention to what you hear. To those who are open to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But to those who are not listening, even what they think they have will be taken away from them.”

Next verse

Matthew 15:8 “The people honor me with their lips but their hearts are far away.”

Later the Holy Spirit urged me to go and read those verses again and that is when I discovered that the root of Matthew 15:8 came from Isaiah 29:13-14.

So like uncovering a great secret I turned there:

“These people say they are mine. They honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away. And their worship of me amounts to nothing more then human laws learned by rote. Because of this, I will show that human wisdom is foolish and even the most brilliant people lack understanding.”

I was then lead to Isaiah 6: Where it talks about the Lord wearing a rob that had a train that filled the temple and their were seraphim angels that covered their faces and feet and they sang, “Holy, holy holy is the LORD Almighty! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundation and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke. After Isaiah’s guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven the Lord asked, “Whom should I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go for us?” Isaiah then answers “Lord, I’ll go! Send me.”

There were not seraphim angels/ or beings in my vision and I did not see the Lord’s train fill the temple but I did see a robe and I did see smoke which is sometimes the evidence of the Holy Spirit. Not just in the spiritual realm but also in how he manifests himself in the realty in which we physically live at this moment.

I have been asking the Lord to send me for sometime. Sometimes we are afraid to ask God to send us because of “where” he might send us. Others ask to be sent hoping to be sent to some foreign land but he sends us to a relative, a neighbor and even the church we attend instead.

Messages to your own church can be difficult especially if the messages doesn’t seem all that encouraging or uplifting but corrective in nature. I have found more often then not a message from the Lord even if it is a corrective one is better received then receiving no message from the Lord at all plus a corrective message given in the Spirit of love in Jesus Christ roots deeper in the mind and heart then not spoken in the Spirit of love in Jesus Christ. And even if they reject what you say by the Spirit- they aren’t rejecting you but God who had you speak it. I find sometimes it’s better if the majority “stays away” after a message I give from the Lord because then I don’t get lured in by human praise and my neutrality stays intact and rooted in the Lord where the Lord esteems me/ not man esteems me. I feel very uneasy when people want to give me praise and not God who gave it to me to say. This last time I even started to quiver after I gave it realizing the mighty source in which it came.

When a message is given usually there are also two or more people to confirm what you say is true. Example: God gave me a message, I obeyed God and spoke it and he confirmed the message was on track because the sermon our pastor followed with had to do with what I shared and then a brother in Christ had gotten the same message as well from the Holy Spirit.

The message had to do with being still and quiet and submitted and surrendered before the Lord and making a greater effort to spend with the Lord because he loves us. We should put no one or anything in front of the Lord in all occasions- good or bad. God puts no one in front of us so we should not allow or put anyone in front of him. Give honor to God. Keep your eyes on the Lord’s love for you and you will be able to love each other, as you should in the unity of Christ's body but if you fail to keep your eyes on the Lord then it will be impossible to have unity in the church body.

Of course this led to our young adult bible study about letting God use us as willing receptacles. God knows if our heart is receptive and willing or not. He knows if we are just giving lip service or if we truly trust him and want him to work his mercy, grace and love through us. For Jesus says “This is what God wants you to do: Believe in the one he sent.” John 6:29

There is where the fullness of Christ is woven into our soul. Believe the Lord is Lord of your life.

Believing in the one he sent (Jesus Christ) not just in your mind but your heart as well helps us to not just listen to the Holy Spirit but to obey and trust him with the task he is going to “partner” with us in doing. Believing is doing. Maturity happens when we begin to understand in our heart. This kind of knowing of Jesus as Lord of our life will surpass even our heart knowledge because God’s love, wisdom and power surpasses anything we could know. And yet this is only possible in Jesus Christ- where can we live and experience God’s love, wisdom, and power that is beyond anything we could understand or imagine as we live in the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Paul says the same thing here:

"I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." Ephesians 3:16-21

For we are just the vessels and he does the work through us so we learn to not to depend on ourselves but depend on Him who enables us to do what we thought at first as not possible for us to do or experience.

God (Father, Son -Jesus Christ, Holy Spirit) is our ultimate source of love, encouragement, praise, refuge, strength and certainty. We must listen, obey and trust him in all things.